Bob Woodward - The Commanders

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To Ben Bradlee and Dick Snyder. the best friends a writer could have

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Copyright 1991 by Bob Woodward

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

This Simon & Schuster paperback edition 2005

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Designed by Eve Metz

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Woodward, Bob.

The Commanders / Bob Woodward.

p. cm.

Includes index.

1. United StatesForeign Relations1989 Decision making. 2. Bush, George, 1924 Military leadership. 3. United StatesMilitary policyDecision making. I. Title.

E881.W66 1991973.928092dc2091-13037

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-41367-5

ISBN-10: 0-671-41367-8

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-3475-7 (Pbk)

ISBN-10: 0-7432-3475-8 (Pbk)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5280-2 (eBook)

Two colleagues have helped me in every step of researching and writing this book:

W ILLIAM F. P OWERS , J R ., a former aide to Senator John H. Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, supplied much of the brainpower and editing skills. A remarkable man of grace and high purpose, Bill provided a truly independent evaluation of every step and idea. He made this book possible. No author ever had a better collaborator or friend.

M ARC E. S OLOMON , a 1989 Yale graduate, joined us in this enterprise for the last 15 months. No one could have offered more intelligence, tact and resourcefulness. He chased down information, edited drafts, transcribed endless tapes and brought a sense of fairness and balance to each task. Without Marcs maturity, energy and spirit, we never would have finished.

David Hume Kennerly

Sullivan/Agence France Presse

AP

Department of Defense Photo

Tim Aubry/Reuters

Maria Bastone/Agence France Presse

David Valdez/White House Photo

Susan Biddle/White House Photo

Margaret Thomas/ The Washington Post

Scott Allen/Department of Defense Photo

Robert D. Ward/Department of Defense Photo

Lisa Berg

Helene Stikkel/Department of Defense Photo

Carol T. Powers/White House Photo

During my 30 years of reporting and book writing, I have found that journalism and public discussion too often turn to the future, which we cant know, rather than the past, which we can.

The coordinated terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that killed nearly 5,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania will likely mark a pivot point in history. President George W. Bush has declared what he says will be a prolonged war on terrorism, and as I write, the initial phase of that war has begun against Afghanistan.

The Gulf War of 1991 was the last time this country was in a major war. Two of the men at the epicenter then were Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, and Colin Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military man. Together they effectively ran that war. In the current war on terrorism, Cheney, now the Vice President, and Powell, now the Secretary of State, are the only war veterans with previous service in senior roles. The others, including President George W. Bush, have never been tested in the crucible of war. Cheney and Powell have lived in that crucible.

There are many coincidences between the 1991 Gulf War and the current war on terrorism. In 1991, Cheney and Powell served a President Bush experienced in and obsessed with foreign affairs. Now they serve another President Bush, younger and a foreign-affairs neophyte. In both wars, building and holding an international coalition has been absolutely critical. A decade ago, the task largely fell to President Bush; now it pretty much falls to Secretary of State Powell. Both the Iraq war and the initial phase of the terrorism war in Afghanistan are in roughly the same Asian corridor of trouble running from Iraq through Iran to Afghanistan. In both wars, Saudi Arabia, a key ally and supplier of oil, is in jeopardy.

Cheney and Powell have salted the upper ranks of the new Bush administration with personal friends and long-time associates. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was Cheneys mentor in the Ford White House; Paul Wolfowitz, the number three in the Cheney Pentagon a decade ago, is now the number two at Defense to Rumsfeld. Stephen J. Hadley, the current Deputy National Security Adviser, was a top Pentagon official in Cheneys Pentagon. Sean OKeefe, the current Deputy Director of the powerful and influential Office of Management and Budget, also served Cheney in the Pentagon. Powells best friend, Richard Armitage, is his number two at the State Department.

It is impossible to examine any part of the current war on terrorism without seeing the hand of Cheney, Powell or one of their loyalists.

The Commanders, which was first published in 1991, is in many respects their storythe intimate account of the tensions, disagreements and debates on the road to war. Based on many interviews with Cheney, Powell and many othersplus an extensive documentary record of meeting notes and files The Commanders shows how they wrestled with the great questions of military and foreign policy in the closed meeting rooms and private offices of the Pentagon and the White House. It also shows the two men up close, their values, friendships, emotions, setbacks, miscalculations and accomplishments. Their collaboration, which at times was uneasy, led to victory in the Gulf War. The Commanders is the story of the how and why amid competing rivalries and often confusing goals.

Now Cheney and Powell, masters of Washington power and survival, are back as the critical members of Bushs war cabinet. Who they are and how they, and their close associates, do in the current crisis will ultimately be central to the outcome of the new war on terrorism. The chain of events began 12 years ago when the two menso different and so strangely intertwinedfirst so dramatically took the national stage.

This is an account of U.S. military decision making during the 800 days from November 8, 1988, when George Bush was elected President, through January 16, 1991, the beginning of the Persian Gulf War.